Nigeria has emerged as the top fourth contributor to intra-Africa trade behind South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire and Egypt for 2023, a report by the Africa Export-Import Bank has disclosed.
The Africa Trade Report 2024, titled ‘Climate Implications of the AfCFTA Implementation,’ disclosed that Nigeria’s intra-Africa trade decreased in 2023 by 2.1 per cent to $8bn from $8.2bn in the previous year.
This led to a marginal decline in the country’s share of total intra-African trade in 2023, decreasing to about 4.2 per cent from 4.4 per cent in 2022.
Notwithstanding, Nigeria remained the fourth-largest intra-African trading nation that year. Around 5.1 per cent of Nigeria’s exports are directed to African countries, with Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, and Senegal emerging as the top three destinations for Nigerian exports within the continent.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics foreign trade report for the last quarter of 2023, Nigeria’s top five trading partners in terms of import were Singapore with goods valued at N5.09tn or 36.09 per cent, China with N2.06tn or 14.61 per cent, Belgium with N1.14tn or 8.09 per cent, India with N908.59bn or 6.44 per cent and the United States of America with goods valued at N512.99bn or 3.64 per cent.
